Fishing in British Columbia > General Discussion

Spring cutthroat fishing is underway

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Rodney:
Amazing. What's even more amazing is how ridiculously clear the Fraser is right now.

A few days ago I was wandering around the Fraser estuary (Steveston) and a massive school of juvenile salmon swam right by. There must have been a few thousand fish.

Paulo:
I'm pretty sure that rainbow is a steelhead. 32", no colour, no discernable spotting and chrome bright. I vote steelhead.

RalphH:

--- Quote from: Paulo on April 08, 2023, 10:53:06 AM ---I'm pretty sure that rainbow is a steelhead. 32", no colour, no discernable spotting and chrome bright. I vote steelhead.

--- End quote ---

Yes it is but they are the same species; Oncorhynchus mykiss. At least on the Pacific Coast, a steelhead is an anadromous rainbow trout that includes in it's life history a period of feeding in the ocean. In BC any rainbow of 50cm or longer taken from a water that is known to have a population of anadromous rainbow trout is a steelhead by regulation. You can find this on page 80 of the Fishing Regulations synopsis.

Even though the photo doesn't show the fish well, Clarki's fish, if it is 50cm or longer would be a steelhead.

clarki:

--- Quote from: RalphH on April 08, 2023, 11:25:50 AM ---Yes it is but they are the same species; Oncorhynchus mykiss. At least on the Pacific Coast, a steelhead is an anadromous rainbow trout that includes in it's life history a period of feeding in the ocean. In BC any rainbow of 50cm or longer taken from a water that is known to have a population of anadromous rainbow trout is a steelhead by regulation. You can find this on page 80 of the Fishing Regulations synopsis.

Even though the photo doesn't show the fish well, Clarki's fish, if it is 50cm or longer would be a steelhead.

--- End quote ---
clarki didn’t measure the fish. It was hooked deep, the hook was tricky to remove, and I was anxious to revive him and get him on his way. Estimate him to be 40 cm, plus or minus, but def plus! 😀

Very different looking fish than yours: heavily spotted, red cheeks and lateral line.

RalphH:
Rainbow vs Steelhead, my point was the difference is statutory. There are rivers on the Pacific coast that have or had significant runs of sera run rainbows that commonly were 3lbs or less. Steelhead 'jacks' weren't unknown - I have seen them on the Squamish system.

In close to 60 years of fishing for trout on the Fraser, I have never caught a rainbow other than a few steelhead. Same story for the Harrison. I can think of 2 from that river, one was about 11 inches and had no adipose fin - clearly a residualized  hatchery fish (common on the V/C). The other was this monstrosity:



which I thought was an escapee from an illegal private pond. When I sent him a picture the regional biologist thought it came out of Eroch Lake. Some other anglers who have been around the same waters as long as me claim to catch 'rainbows' frequently. But are they rainbows? Cutthroat and rainbows can be very hard to differentiate. Or do I sometimes make a similar mistake in reverse? In spawning colors male cutthroat can take  a good rainbow blush on their gill plates and flanks.

My guess is that your fish is more like 18 inches or more. Pretty close to steelhead size.

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